The Top 10 Real Estate Affiliate Programs – As Safe As Houses

by Lewis Ogden | Last Updated: May 27, 2022 | Monetization

Real estate is a highly competitive and very niche market. It’s all about investments and taking risks, which can make it intimidating for many.

And yet, with over 5.34 million existing homes in America sold in the year 2019 alone, it’s clear that it’s a profitable market – and a tempting one, at that.

This is one of the reasons that real estate affiliate programs can be so profitable. Moving house is common but expensive, and therefore the commission payouts have the potential to be large and frequent.

The issue there, of course, is reaching the right audience, especially since there’s a lot of competition in the sector.

The good news is that as the market grows, so do your options. 90% of those purchasing homes begin their search online, according to research, so you have a very wide market.

The question is, which of the many real estate affiliate programs out there will provide the right results, and how can you market them effectively?

Real Estate Affiliate Programs

• All Things Real Estate
• Buildium
• Corporate Housing By Owner
• Deal Check
• Foreclosure
• HomeAway
• Homeowner Referral Network
• Property M.O.B.
• Real Estate Express
• Referz

1. All Things Real Estate

• Commission Percentage/Value: 15%
• Cookie Length: 30 days
• Link to Program

All Things Real Estate first launched in 2014 and focuses on creating interesting real estate marketing materials, offering a mix of custom and ready-made supplies for promotion and marketing. They specialize in providing modern touches to typical materials, making them potentially more interesting.

These materials include open house signs and products, stickers for listing and sold materials, homebuyer journals, directionals, riders, accessories, attire, and more. All their products are produced locally, though they do deliver to a wide range of different places.

Management of the affiliate program at All Things Real Estate is done via Refersion, and this lets affiliates keep tabs on commissions and sales while viewing payment history. They can also download creative marketing products through this platform.

Why All Things Real Estate?

The affiliate program for All Things Real Estate is a fairly simple one to be a part of. You sign up, and after the registration form is submitted, you are instantly accepted as an affiliate and can start instantly. It’s also totally free for you to sign up.

2. Buildium

• Commission Percentage/Value: 25%
• Cookie Length: 60 days
• Link to Program

Buildium is a website that is directed towards real estate investors. The site provides these investors with the ability to perform a wide range of tasks relating to property management, including accepting tenant payments, filing tax forms, and more.

The company was originally founded back in 2004, and today, more than 46 nations make use of its software. It’s been featured on the America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies list for 7 years in a row on Inc 5000, too.

To sign up as an Affiliate with Buildium, after receiving approval, you can use pay-per-click campaigns or simply promote the software via your relevant website. Qualified leads net you commissions, and as Buildium is a monthly subscription software, you get paid per month.

The setup process is fairly easy, as all customer service concerns are taken care of by Buildium. Just use links, approved by Buildium, or banners on your site and you’re good to go. Sales and commissions can be tracked via the affiliate program, and anyone with a website is free to apply.

Why Buildium?

Thanks to its relative popularity, Buildium’s affiliate program is an interesting option, and the Buildium software is used by many who work in the industry or simply own property. This makes it a more salable product, and one that is likely to have some longevity. It solves lots of issues faced by landowners, so it’s easy to promote to an audience.

3. Corporate Housing By Owner

• Commission Percentage/Value: 15%
• Cookie Length: Varies
• Link to Program

Corporate Housing By Owner, known simply as CHBO, is a site where owners of properties list their corporate rentals, promoting and marketing them in the process. It lets these owners connect with rental markets that they may be interested in, such as military renters, companies, business travelers, and medical travelers. For a small fee charged monthly, property owners upload pictures and descriptions of their properties on CHBO and advertise their offerings.

With more than 35 years of expertise in the industry of real estate and corporate housing, CHBO has made quite a name for itself and is considered trustworthy. CHBO claims to empower property managers and owners with efficient and effective advice while supplying industry knowledge in an informative and, hopefully, inspiring manner.

To apply as an affiliate with CHBO, you need an account at ShareASale. It is free to join or apply, and once you’re approved, you will receive a unique affiliate link that you can use to start earning from sales.

Why Corporate Housing By Owner?

As a site specifically focused on corporate housing, which is a huge multi-billion dollar industry, you’ll be able to tap into a market that is teeming with commission possibilities. CHBO further provides banners, advertisements, and other marketing products to their affiliates which can make the promotion process even easier.

4. Deal Check

• Commission Percentage/Value: 30%
• Cookie Length: 90 days
• Link to Program

Deal Check is an investing application for real estate, and it’s ranked among the top 5 of its kind in four different countries. It’s a great application for property agents, managers, and investors, who can use it to see if their properties or the properties they are interested in are priced fairly.

The application works by providing a variety of interesting and useful functions, such as generating property lists for comparisons, importing information from public data or records, and even creating financial projections. Users can look up the recent competition, calculate the highest offer price, share property reports, and customize parameters as desired.

Anyone can apply to be a Deal Check affiliate, and typically, it just takes minutes to receive a referral link unique and specific to you. Deal Check is not picky about their affiliates and, as long as you convince your audience or even those in your life to subscribe, you receive your commission on a monthly basis.

An affiliate dashboard allows affiliates to easily track successful list postings, lookup marketing banners, get buttons, and access a wide range of other marketing tools.

Why Deal Check?

With an annual growth rate of 247%, Deal Check is a fairly well-known company, and it boasts many positive reviews as well as earning features in top publications. This means it’s reputable, which boosts your sales chances. The company also offers some of the biggest commissions in the market, with no limit on them at all.

5. Foreclosure

• Commission Percentage/Value: 25%
• Cookie Length: 180 days
• Link to Program

Foreclosure is a website with an interesting concept; it allows buyers to look up properties that have been foreclosed on before they are released nto the mass market at varying levels, from county to state. Unlike many other sites, Foreclosure makes it a point to refresh and update listings twice a day on a daily basis.

Live customer support provides plenty of assistance to users, and the site offers opportunities for investors of all levels of experience. With all the high-converting listings and leading distressed asset information provision, Foreclosure stands out among its competitors.

Affiliates sign up for an account on foreclosure, await account activation, and receive a referral link unique to them that they can use in their promotions. Commissions are paid monthly, with a minimum payout amount of $100.

Why Foreclosure?

Foreclosure has a very long cookie life and promises a generous commission based on a monthly recurring subscription, and its concept means that it’s easy to promote to audiences that are serious about investing. Property listings provide some of the highest conversion rates you can find in the industry, too.

6. HomeAway

• Commission Percentage/Value: $20 per listed property, 3% per renting traveler
• Cookie Length: Varies
• Link to Program

HomeAway is a vacation rental listing site with over 2 million properties available. It’s somewhat similar to Airbnb, but it specifically is geared towards travelers interested in having a full property to themselves instead of sharing the area. It might remind you of another platform called VRBO – and you’d be right for being reminded, as VRBO was acquired by HomeAway a while ago.

To become an affiliate with HomeAway, you simply sign up at their website and wait for the approval. You need a minimum of 1,000 site visitors monthly to be eligible. Real-time reporting and third-party tracking make it easy to manage your earnings, and a mix of API integration and interesting content provides useful promotional options.

Why HomeAway?

Though it doesn’t offer as large of a commission, HomeAway can appeal to a very broad spectrum of users, so it’s not too difficult to promote – though you should make sure you have a decent amount of monthly site visitors before diving in. HomeAway is popular around the world thanks to its tie-ins with the Expedia brand, so there are lots of opportunities to market your affiliation.

7. Homeowner Referral Network

• Commission Percentage/Value: $100 – $325
• Cookie Length: Varies
• Link to Program

The Homeowner Referral Network, or HRN, is designed to provide access to reliable and trustworthy contractors, specifically to homeowners. As opposed to the more traditional method of pushing advertisements from contractors for a fee, HRN received a commission after contractors complete their tasks and receive their wages.

Interestingly, the Homeowner Referral Network was founded by a woman who found herself and her family seeking a way to hire contractors that were truly reliable and vetted. Though home-based, the HRN is nothing less than a business, and it works by screening and referring local contractors to homeowners. Contractors can be anyone working in home improvement, maintenance, or repairs, such as construction workers, carpenters, painters, electricians, plumbers, and more.

Affiliates receive newsletters every month that you can use to create unique website content. The network also provides banners, links, and other promotional materials, and tools for tracking a wide range of data, such as traffic, sales, and commissions. Signing up is free and as soon as you sign up via a brief form, you receive immediate access to an affiliate account.

Why The Homeowner Referral Network?

The Homeowner Referral Network provides practical solutions and opportunities for those who work in real estate, and it’s easy for an audience of this variety to leverage. The commission you can receive is impressively high, too, so you’re earning a good amount each time.

8. Property M.O.B.

• Commission Percentage/Value: 25%
• Cookie Length: 30 days
• Link to Program

Property M.O.B. is a real estate investor resource platform. The website aims to share information with advice, content, and tools designed to help investors reach their full potential. Full-fledged coaching, virtual aid, and tools for sales are also offered, as well as a real estate investor-geared platform that is one of the best CRM platforms of its kind.

Despite offering paid options. Property M.O.B. also provides a lot of free content, aiming to share as much as they can in a charge-free manner. Specifically, the platform focuses on wholesaling in real estate, and the person behind it boasts more than 1000 successful transactions in that field.

Signing up for the affiliate program of Property M.O.B. is free of charge. Account activation provides you with banners, links, and promotional materials. The affiliate program is primarily managed by InfusionSoft and you can track sales, clicks, and similar statistics easily via an affiliate portal.

Why Property M.O.B.?

The aesthetic of Property M.O.B. is one of kick-ass strength, which can be appealing to certain audiences and allows the platform to stand out. Even ignoring the aesthetic, if your audience consists of newbies or novices in the investment world, they will likely have their interest piqued by what the site has to offer.

9. Real Estate Express

• Commission Percentage/Value: 25%
• Cookie Length: 100 days
• Link to Program

Real Estate Express is a company that specializes in real estate training. Agents complete training through genuine experts in the field, but they can also opt to take post-licensing courses that help to further their education even more. It basically gives investors a way to become genuine, licensed agents, which is something that many audiences in this field would be interested in.

Real Estate Express was founded in 1996 and is a McKissock company, and they provide a mix of paid and free guidance to help propel agents and investors further in their careers in real estate.

Affiliates only need to sign up with a simple form, wait to receive approval, and then get access to logos, banners, and other promotional tools that you can use on your site to drive audiences to your unique affiliate link. Commissions are paid monthly and you can track real-time earnings, statistics, and tools in a specialized portal. The minimum payout is $50.

Why Real Estate Express?

This training company has more than 200,000 licensed agents in more than 30 US states, meaning it has a wide reach and is likely to appeal to many audiences across the nation. The generous cookie length and commission also allows for real and tangible opportunities to promote products and profit.

10. Referz

• Commission Percentage/Value: 20%
• Cookie Length: Varies
• Link to Program

Referz.com is a site for those with high traffic to their websites already, specifically for top real estate agents. The site works by allowing agents to refer their audiences to other agents within the network, often with different locations and experience levels. A referral fee is given to successful agents, and a bulk of that referral fee goes to users, with only 10% taken by the site.

This is completely separate from the revenue affiliates can earn by directing traffic to Referz.com. Essentially, if you get a lot of traffic, you can both earn through referral fees and affiliate commissions. Do note that you need to be a licensed agent in order to join the referral program.

The process is fairly simple. A buyer or advertiser will request an agent recommendation, which will be customized to their needs. Agents deemed the best for the requirements will be assigned to that buyer or advertiser. You can even sign in certain other, alternating agents to help build a team that can be even more lucrative.

Why Referz.com?

As a website geared towards top agents, Referz.com has a lot of reliability to its name, and if you’re a high-earning agent the commission you’ll get from your higher traffic will be pretty substantial. It’s also a great way for you, as a potentially more experienced agent in the field, to support newer agents if you refer people to novices with promise.

Products You Could Promote

Now that you know which affiliate programs could work for you, you now are faced with a new problem – what are you promoting in order to get sales and commissions? Well, it’s not as complex as it seems.

Most real estate promotion options are pretty simple and cut-and-dry. You would likely be running a real-estate-related website, to begin with, or perhaps have a website that focuses on the housing market. This means your word is already somewhat credible thanks to your experience and traffic, so people are likely to trust your advice.

There is also the option of promoting real estate affiliate programs on locally focused websites. For example, if your content is all geared towards your community or a specific location, you can advertise properties in that area, or to homeowners who have assets there.

While a very small number of people, locals are likely to listen to other locals, so if you’re one of them your recommendation could be worth plenty to them.

You could also run a travel website and promote travel-related real estate to those looking to rent vacation properties. On top of that, a business blog or site that is in a field where business trips are often necessary could make a profit from advertising business travel real estate. People often forget that short-term real estate rentals are genuine areas of the market, so take advantage of that.

Since so many people are looking to rent or own homes, there are plenty of other ways you can get creative about when promoting real estate. If you write a blog that provides financial advice, you can direct your audience to a real estate company that offers good comparative pricing, for example.

Real estate is a very niche market, and that’s a double-edged sword. You need to find people who are interested, but once you do, you’re likely to have more focused attention on you by your consumers. It’s also wide-reaching in its relevance, but to make a solid income out of it, you’d need to really find that niche sweet spot.

As such, keep in mind that promoting real estate products means you need to know your target audience very well. What sorts of things is your audience looking for? Are they seeking to rent? To buy? To find temporary homes? To learn? These will affect the kinds of affiliate programs you wind up signing up for.

One could argue that, due to how selective the market is, you will benefit even more from focusing on SEO and similar techniques in order to drive traffic. Use the right keywords for the product you’re promoting, utilize social media, and watch your competition.

Don’t forget that you don’t have to stick to promoting just one website or just one real estate affiliate program, especially if the content you produce is closely tied to the housing market. You can always find different affiliate programs for different functions and show your audience the wealth of tools available out there to use!

Tags: Affiliate Programs